After certain operations are performed on a living body, and certain body parts been removed because of disease or other destruction of the organ, other body parts must be reconnected in order for the patient to survive and to maintain the remaining body functions. For example, in certain heart operations where bypass surgery is performed, sections of a person's coronary artery to the heart may either be completely replaced or actually bypassed during the heart bypass operation. While some of these arteries are large and are more easily manipulated by a surgeon, other arteries or hollow body organs are smaller and much more difficult to manipulate and hold in position while trying to join the ends thereof after a transectional operation.
In one instance, while a prostate gland is being removed in an operation called a prostatectomy, a section of the urethra is be removed when the prostate is removed, due to the occurrence of cancer in the prostate. After the operation to remove the prostate, the urethra must be reconnected to the bladder in order for the person to resume normal body functions, here, urination.
Heretofore, surgeons would grasp the end of a transected urethra, for example, and stretch it to the mating end of the urethra at the bladder perform delicate suturing operations with tiny, fine needles. Needless to say, some surgeons are very adept at this kind of anastomosis, but with radical prostatectomies becoming more common place, techniques for assisting in the rejoining of body parts, such as the urethra to the bladder, would be appreciated.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,553,543, to Amarasinghe, issued Nov. 19, 1985, reveals a plurality of flexible suture needles which are held in slots in a flared core by a sleeve which extends about the flexible suture needles and the core. The suture needles, and attached threads, are caused to penetrate the walls by a body duct, such as a blood vessel, by inserting the flared end of the core into the severed body duct and then forcing the needles to move longitudinally in the slots against the flared end of the core so that they bend outwardly and are driven through the wall of the duct. U.S. Pat. Nos. to Avant, 4,848,367, issued Jul. 18, 1989, 4,873,977, issued Oct. 17, 1989, and 5,047,039, issued Sep. 19, 1991, are all concerned with urethra and bladder anastomosis by varying techniques. Other U.S. Pat. Nos. to Tauber, 2,897,820; Demos, 4,784,139; Roth, 4,911,164; Gottesman, 5,053,043; McKeating, 5,078,721; Jain, 5,080,664; Roth, 5,207,672; and Rothe 5,209,725 are all related to prior attempts at anastomosis and tissue ligation.